Zoo Med Tortoise House - Spacious Reptile Habitat for Indoor & Outdoor Use - Perfect for Pet Turtles, Tortoises & Small Reptiles

Love the tortoise house. Being cedar its great for outdoors or indoors. I recommend getting slate tile that you cab lay as substrate then place your reptile bark etc inside the hide portion. This gives the tortoises a way to keep their claws and beak in check. I have 2 box eastern turtles in mine. Now ready to get another for my yearlings.I bought a new cage for our little cold blooded tortoise. Out of the bat, you need to follow closely the assembly instructions, if you don't pieces won't fit. Even then some pieces are longer than they should, I did a few pictures of the mismatch lengths. Overall it ain't a major issue, but it would be better if the sizes were accurate. As other posters have pointed out wood is on the cheap side, and some wood might come splint. Again this ain't in itself a major concern unless it's on a key section, you'll be fine. Now the wood is on the cheap side, so I took extra steps to protect it, first I stain it dark wood (to match my furniture) and then I applied lacquer. To add longevity to this cage I did the mat on the bottom. Overall I give it a 4 star but I might a 3.5 would be more accurate. It ain't bad, it's just a standard wood cage with soft wood and a few mismatch corners. It looks very nice and time will tell if it's a $100 dollar bill worth. But I'm happy for my buddy so a 4 star fits the bill. I took some pics for you to see. Enjoy a good buy overall.I recently added Rush (Russian tortoise) to my family. I am not all that crafty and was looking for a good habitat alternative to a fish tank. This Zoo Med habitat seemed like a good option. It arrived timely and had all the pieces. It was a tad difficult to assemble. You will for sure need a screw gun because not all the holes are predrilled and the instructions were very basic and didn’t mention needing hand tools more than a screw driver. I didn’t love the fact that they stamped the logo on the top panel but based on others review I flipped it to the inside so that was a pretty simple fix. Something else I did based on another review was put down peel and stick tile. I for sure going to recommend this or some type covering, with out it I think the cleaning would Be difficult and the wood would eventually break down, which is why I only gave it three stars for easy to clean. It it came treated or with a protective sheeting I think it could get more stars here. It seems very solid. My Rush is an active little guy and he is always running into the walls or trying to climb up them (which he cannot do). It seems to plenty of space for one tortoise. I have both a basking light and a UVB light bar that fit well over the wire lid. The lid flips open easy. The latches don’t line up perfect but you can get them to latch with a bit of a wiggle. So if you are not handy or you don’t want to spend the time measuring and cutting I think this is a good habitat and would recommend it.Great overall product. Assembly was fairly easy though some of the threaded pieces needed to be cleared out of some remaining fabrication metal, which was easily done by poking it out with a small screwdriver. Another problem existed in the fact the main bottom sheet of wood was slightly warped. This made the side walls on the far end of the cage pull away from the end piece when the enclosure screen was opened. However, the cage still closed easily and lined up with the latches. The latches closed solidly and and when were closed...made everything line up again. This is a very nice looking enclosure. It is much nicer looking that a tupperware/rubbermaid bin strewn with lights and cords and such. We didn't want that kind of thing. The metal screen material of this enclosure is sturdy enough to support a nice florescent UVB bulb mounted inside (though use a low power 2.0 or such to make it safe at such a short distance to the tortoises). I am using the enclosure as a set up for baby redfoot tortoises and the need for moisture and humidity is great. So I lined the floor and walls of the enclosure with tiles. In the top portion of the "hide" area I have set up a heat emitter mounted directly through a whole drilled through the wood ceiling. The bulb sits inside the hide a safe distance from the tortoises and temps inside the hide using a thermostat stay at 88 degrees (ideal for redfoots) and the moist sphagnum moss substrate inside keeps the humidity around 75%-80%. Ultimately I am happy with the product. I would consider purchasing one for temporary outdoor tortoise playtime and two of these enclosures put together (as pictured on the box) would be a reasonable amount of room for baby tortoises to securely get some outdoor excersice (though no clear way to secure two end-to-end is apparent). I would recommend this product to others with the caution that one should be prepared to make slight modifications or at least be slightly mechanically inclined when putting the unit together should problems occur such as the ones listed above. Really beats the pants off of building one yourself from scratch.Arrived as expected, easy to assembly very happy with it!Good quality wood, well made. Liked that the end comes out not only for cleaning but it allows my tortoises to go to their bed area, be under the light in the main part and come out and roam the house when they want to hide or get cooler. It makes it easier to regulate their temperature and not become overheated and stressed. It works very well for meEasy to put together,sturdy needs a clip on light,we thought rather than a standVery dissapionted, laminate area all split and wholes in wood, not suitable to put pet into it, very damaged, how do i return as too big to postWas exactly what we required & easy to assembleThis is completely useless to house a forest species of tortoise, they say its great for red foot tortoises, its absolutely not suitable at all. Once you assemble it its just wood pieces attached to each other, its not sealed or treated so its going to rot in no time at all. Tortoises need high humidity and lots of moisture, this enclosure will be rotted and garbage within weeks not to mention when you open the box your blasted with an unimaginably strong chemical smell. Do your self a favor and dont waste your money on this.